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Marie vs Maryclaire

American parents have registered 542,270 Maries since 1880, against 619 Maryclaires. Marie is still ahead, with 474 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Marie against Maryclaire, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Marie Maryclaire

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Marie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2008, when Marie had 567 and Maryclaire had 24.

Side by side

  Marie Maryclaire
Total US births 542,270619
Most in one year 12,77424
Babies in 2025 47415
Estimated living today 179,000600
Median age today 6621
Peak year 19202008
Best rank 13th girls5,750th girls
Rank in 2025 617th7,133rd
First recorded 18801922
Girls / boys 540,077 / 2,193619 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Maries alive today are over 66; half the Maryclaires are over 21. That is 45 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Marie and Maryclaire.